EU foreign policy chief urges faster arms production as ministers meet in Brussels

The EU foreign policy chief on Tuesday urged faster European defense production as EU defense ministers met in Brussels for talks covering Ukraine, industrial capacity and Middle East security issues.

“We are focusing on innovation and joint projects because we have too many projects in different member states that are not interoperable,” Kaja Kallas said ahead of the meeting.

She stressed that the EU needed to push member states towards “more joint procurement” and greater innovation, adding that lessons from Ukraine should be taken into account.

Kallas noted that defense industry output remained a concern despite available funding.

“The countries have a lot of funding on the table, but the defense industry is not ramping up its production,” she said.

Ukraine’s defense minister is expected to join the talks, where discussions will include a proposed €90 billion ($97.8 billion) loan aimed at addressing Kyiv’s urgent needs, Kallas said.

She added that ministers would also meet representatives of the defense industry to examine bottlenecks in production and delivery.

“We need to see what the problem is so we can bring them together,” she said.

About the Middle East, Kallas said ministers would discuss Lebanon and maritime security operations.

She pointed out that there was interest among member states in a possible new European mission to support Lebanese armed forces following the planned end of the UNIFIL mission later this year.

Kallas also underlined that discussions would include the EU’s Aspides naval operation in the Strait of Hormuz, adding that its operational plan could be adjusted if member states agreed.

“We have it already. We only need to change the operational plan of that mandate,” she said, adding that the structure for the mission was already in place but would require further political agreement and additional contributions from member states to proceed.